March 09, 2024 / By mobanmarket
JOLIET, — Three highly paid employees at Joliet City Hall — city of Joliet economic development director Cesar Suarez, his boss, Community Development Director Eva-Marie Tropper and Krystal Walsh, the city of Joliet’s senior human resources generalist, are out of jobs this week as a result of an employment shakeup, Joliet Patch has learned.
Photos and biographical information for Suarez and Tropper, who both made well over $100,000 have been removed from the city of Joliet’s website, Patch discovered on Friday.
“I’m not surprised,” Joliet City Councilman Joe Clement told Joliet Patch on Friday morning, when reached for comment specifically about the departures for Suarez and Tropper. “It had nothing to do with me, obviously, other people other than myself are agreeing with what I said at the council meeting which was economic development at the city has stalled. And I won’t get involved in personnel decisions, I never have, and I never will, but this is what I’m hearing in the community and through my own observations.”
Clement said on Friday that he had no knowledge ahead of time of the shakeup. “I learned through another City Council member,” Clement explained. “I don’t expect our of economic development people to be flying all over the country 50 times a year, but let’s make some efforts to recruit manufacturing and other corporations to come to Joliet due to the inland port, or connect with the Culinan group or CenterPoint or NorthPoint, let’s boost our economic development for our city. I would like to work closer with the local trades because other developments are not coming to Joliet, which are going to other municipalities. They are not coming here.”
Lastly, Clement remarked that he is optimistic about the future of the city’s economic development.
“I’m confident we’ll get on the right track and go in the right direction to where we need to go,” Clement added.
Tropper made $157,117 in 2023, Suarez made $135,207 in 2023, Walsh made $81,571, the city of Joliet finance department’s annual compensation report shows.
Suarez’s ouster leaves Joliet without any full-time staff in the economic development office.
Suarez’s two employees who worked for him both left Joliet in 2023 and their jobs remain open, according to the city of Joliet human resources listing of job opportunities.
Under Suarez’s leadership, Joliet has been without an economic development specialist and a senior economic development specialist since last year.
Suarez came to Joliet in May 2022, and he was hired away from Peoria by former city of Joliet manager Jim Capparelli. Under Suarez, economic development projects have stagnated across the city of Joliet as Suarez focused on electronic vehicles and trying to establish lots of electric vehicle charging stations across the city of Joliet.
Suarez rarely spoke with Joliet Patch, unlike his predecessors Steve Jones and Derek Conley, who kept the city of Joliet economic development office in the spotlight by generating lots of business expansions and redevelopment projects across the city of Joliet.
Tropper was also a Capparelli hire in June 2021, and she was rarely in the news, either, unlike her predecessor Kendall Jackson, who retired from Joliet after a long and distinguished career, retiring in December 2020.
Tropper came to Joliet after serving as a project manager with the City of Chicago.
She has a long LinkedIn profile for herself, stating, “As the Department Head, I supervise 5 directors and oversee up to 75 employees across five Divisions of the municipal corporation: Economic Development, City Planning, Buildings, Facilities & Maintenance, and Neighborhood Services. My primary objective is to develop the department’s organizational and core team capacity to support implementing the administration’s strategic goals by becoming more innovative, efficient, and impactful. My secondary objective is to enable an equitable built environment where communities, especially those most vulnerable, can thrive.”
The following jobs are currently posted on the city of Joliet website.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Click Here: cnc rapid prototyping
Categories: